Table of contents

LATER MEDIEVAL, 1230-1550

Street Plan Within the Walls

The essential elements of the city's topography were
well established by the early 13th century. Its dominant
feature remained the four principal streets whose
intensive development was illustrated by their incorporation of the unique first-storey walkways known as
the Rows, (fn. 1) and by the fact that until the 16th century
they were used as the basis for the administrative
divisions of the city. (fn. 2) The north-south axis, comprising
Northgate Street, Bridge Street, and Lower Bridge
Street, intersected with that running east-west, Eastgate Street and Watergate Street, in the area in front of
St. Peter's known by the 14th century as the Cross. The
Cross was the social and commercial heart of the city,
the site of the Pentice, High Cross, and pillory, and the
focus of the markets. (fn. 3)

Although it is clear that other streets besides those
forming the main axes were also in use in late AngloSaxon and Norman times, most were recorded only in
the 13th century. By the mid 14th century at the latest
the intramural area had attained the layout which was
described in detail in a survey transcribed into the city's
first Assembly Book c. 1570 and allegedly copied from
a certain record 'in writing in a table', dating from the
time of Edward III. (fn. 4) That layout survived largely
unaltered until the 19th century.

Eastgate Street, a broad thoroughfare, especially
where it opened out into the market area at the
Cross, formed an obvious starting point for the
survey. It contained numerous shops, and in the 13th
and 14th centuries the premises of leading merchants
and many of the city's bakers and goldsmiths. (fn. 5) At its
north-western corner it included the Buttershops,
which by the late 13th or early 14th century had
probably developed into a free-standing structure on
the site of the original stalls. (fn. 6) Further east was the
abbot of Chester's stone hall which in the later 13th
century was leased to Sir John Orby. (fn. 7) By then a
number of streets extended northwards to the graveyard which lay south of the abbey church. The westernmost, Leen Lane, took its name from a merchant family
which owned property in it in the 13th century. (fn. 8) Later
blocked, in the 14th and 15th centuries it gave access to
St. Oswald's vicarage and St. Giles's bakehouse. (fn. 9)
Immediately east of Leen Lane lay Godstall Lane,
mentioned in the survey but one of the few intramural
thoroughfares not otherwise recorded until the 15th
century. (fn. 10) Further east still lay St. Werburgh Lane, in
being by the 13th century (fn. 11) and later the site of a large
stone building, perhaps the abbot's hall. (fn. 12)

By the 1270s the south side of Eastgate Street was
dominated by the corn market and its associated shops
and malt kilns. (fn. 13) In the 17th century the frontage still
included 'a great stone building' with five arches and 'a
long broad pair of stairs' known as the Honey Stairs. (fn. 14)
Because development behind was hampered by the
collapsed remains of the Roman legionary bathhouse
only one throughfare opened from that side: Fleshmongers Lane (later Newgate Street) lay east of the
baths near the east wall, and ran south to Wolfeldgate
(later Newgate). In existence by the earlier 12th century, in the 14th and 15th it contained shops. (fn. 15)

Chester, 1580

Bridge Street, like Eastgate Street, was a major
thoroughfare filled with shops. It also had important
merchant houses, such as Godwit Hall, between Commonhall Street and White Friars, (fn. 16) and Stone Place near
St. Bridget's church, which in the early 15th century
belonged to Roger of Derby and which probably
survived in 2000 as nos. 48-52. (fn. 17) The southern termination of the street, the site of the former gate of the
Roman fortress, was marked by the churches of St.
Michael and St. Bridget. Later known as the Two
Churches, it was spanned by an arch marking the
junction with Lower Bridge Street. (fn. 18) Behind the eastern
side of the street, development was blocked by the
collapsed bathhouse, and as a result Pepper Street-
which ran south of the ruins - was the only thoroughfare to extend eastwards to the city walls. Though first
recorded in the 13th century, it followed the line of the
southern wall of the legionary fortress and was presumably no later in date than Wolfeldgate to which it
led. (fn. 19) Probably, as the name Pepper Street suggests, the
location of the city's spicers, (fn. 20) by the mid 14th century
it contained shops and a large corner house known as
the Black Hall, at the junction with Bridge Street. (fn. 21) On
the south side of the street lay Daresbury Hall, which in
the 13th century belonged to the mayors Walter de
Livet and Ranulph of Daresbury. (fn. 22)

Street development was more complex on the west
side of Bridge Street, which by the mid 13th century
was the location of the commercial quarter known as
the selds. (fn. 23) Three streets led off westwards along roughly
parallel courses. The northernmost, Commonhall Lane
(later Street), also known as Moothall, Normans, or
John Norman's Lane, extended west to Berward or
Alban Lane (later Weaver Street) and presumably
provided access to the common hall which lay
behind the selds from the mid 13th century. (fn. 24) Its
other names almost certainly recall John son of
Norman, who held land in Alban Lane in the earlier
13th century, and suggest that the lane pre-dated the
common hall. (fn. 25) In the early 16th century it became the
site of almshouses founded by Sir Thomas Smith. (fn. 26)

Further south, Fulcards Lane (later White Friars)
existed by 1200. (fn. 27) In the mid 13th century it became
known as Alexander Harre's Lane after an important
citizen who is almost certainly to be identified with
Alexander the clerk, son of Earl Ranulph III's nurse
Wymark. (fn. 28) Alexander owned a chapel, houses, and a
garden to the north, in or near Pierpoint Lane. (fn. 29) By then
the area may have been a fashionable place to live, for
another grandee, Ranulph the chamberlain, owned a
stone chamber in Alexander Harre's Lane by c. 1240. (fn. 30)
In the later 13th century the Carmelites established an
extensive precinct north of the lane, bounded by Alban
Lane on the west, Commonhall Lane to the north, and
the rear of the properties fronting Bridge Street on the
east. (fn. 31) Its impact upon the area is reflected in a further
change of name from Alexander Harre's Lane to White
Friars Lane. (fn. 32)

Between Commonhall Lane and White Friars Lane
lay Pierpoint Lane, named after the family of Pierrepont which in the 13th century produced a sheriff of
the city and an abbess of the Benedictine nunnery. (fn. 33) A
lane leading from Bridge Street to the land of Robert
Pierrepont was in being by the time of Abbot Birchills
(1291-1323) and probably by the 1290s; it is to be
identified with that named after an unidentified sheriff
Richard, where in the later 13th century the Arneway
family owned property including a chapel (probably
that which earlier belonged to Alexander Harre). (fn. 34) The
lane also appears in the Assembly Book survey where it
was described as 'the way some time to the common
hall', an indication that it probably extended no further
west than that building. (fn. 35)

Almost certainly only the easternmost ends of the
streets just described were densely built up in the
Middle Ages. Much of Alban Lane, for example, was
occupied by gardens in the late 13th and earlier 14th
century, while the western end of White Friars Lane
was the site of a barn. (fn. 36) The layout was regular and
gridded; the streets followed parallel courses and,
except for Pierpoint Lane, terminated to the west
either in St. Nicholas Lane (later Nicholas Street) or
in Alban Lane, both of which ran south from Watergate Street. It is difficult to assess the antiquity of the
plan. Though several of the streets bore the names of
13th-century inhabitants or buildings, it cannot be
assumed that they originated then. Many thoroughfares changed their name or had more than one name
concurrently, and the predominance of 13th-century
nomenclature may merely reflect better documentation
in that period. At least one element in the plan,
Fulcards Lane, dated from before 1200.

Lower Bridge Street extended from the Two
Churches south to the river. It too contained important houses, most notably the mansion which in the
late 13th century belonged to Richard the engineer
and which lay beside St. Olave's church, perhaps
originally its chapel. (fn. 37) Further south the street seems
to have had an agricultural character; the principal
messuage of the Dunfoul family was located close to
the Bridgegate, complete with shops, dovecot, orchard, and barns, while near by was a property known as
'the earl's byre'. (fn. 38) Two lanes led off eastwards. St.
Olave's Lane, a minor way beside the church in being
before 1272, terminated at some uncertain point to
the north-east and was later described as 'waste . . .
without any house but one'. (fn. 39) Further south, Claverton Lane (later Duke Street) extended to the city
walls. (fn. 40) Probably the site of the eight 11th-century
burgages within the city dependent upon Claverton
manor, (fn. 41) it later included a messuage known in the
1340s as Earl Ranulph's forge. (fn. 42) By the late 13th
century part of its northern side was occupied by the
south front and barn of the town house of Richard the
engineer. (fn. 43) Behind the three main frontages of Pepper
Street, Lower Bridge Street, and Claverton Lane lay
gardens, extending to the walls and still undeveloped in
the late 18th century. (fn. 44) To the south, however, in the
area between Claverton Lane and the river, there had
been rather more building, and by the later 14th
century a minor thoroughfare known as Capel Lane
linked Claverton Lane with the Capelgate. (fn. 45) Outside the
city wall lay houses (fn. 46) and fisheries with stalls in the
King's Pool, the deeper part of the river Dee below
the causeway; the causeway itself was at least as old as
the Dee Mills, which lay at its western end on the north
bank and were in existence by the 1090s. (fn. 47)

South of St. Bridget's church, Lower Bridge Street
intersected with Cuppin Lane, first recorded in the mid
13th century and extending as far west as St. Nicholas
Lane. (fn. 48) It contained shops by the mid 14th century. (fn. 49)
The area to the south, between Cuppin Lane and the
castle, was perhaps relatively densely occupied, its
residents including senior officials of the earl. Castle
Lane, on the same axis as the streets further north,
connected the castle and nunnery with Lower Bridge
Street and was presumably in being by the late 11th
century. (fn. 50) In the 14th century, when it contained shops
and carpenters' premises, (fn. 51) it was still dominated by the
Stone Hall, the large mansion with hall, undercrofts,
and stables built by Peter the clerk which lay in the
north-eastern angle of the intersection with Lower
Bridge Street, at the point known as Castle Lane End,
and which had passed to Peter's descendants, the
Thornton family. (fn. 52) Castle and Cuppin Lanes were
connected by Bunce Lane, (fn. 53) named after a family
which had land in the area in the 13th century, and
which in 1243 produced a sheriff of the city. (fn. 54) To the
south-west, in front of the castle's outer gatehouse,
there was an irregular open area known by the 13th
century as Gloverstone, which like the castle itself lay
outside the city liberties, (fn. 55) and which was crossed by a
roadway leading to the castle gate, constructed over
demolished houses in 1295. (fn. 56) The eponymous stone
which marked the limit of the city's jurisdiction, a great
slab of blue or grey marble, stood in front of the
gatehouse until the late 18th century. (fn. 57)

The area south of Castle Lane seems to have been the
scene of much building in the 13th and 14th centuries.
From Gloverstone, St. Mary Lane (later St. Mary's Hill)
followed the boundary of the churchyard of St. Mary
on the Hill steeply down to Ship Lane (later Shipgate
Street). (fn. 58) In the late 14th century it contained a large
mansion known as the Bultinghouse, the property of
Hugh de Holes. (fn. 59) Ship Lane itself connected the
Shipgate with Lower Bridge Street and was certainly
in existence by c. 1290. (fn. 60) A modest thoroughfare,
described merely as 'a way for a horse and a man', it
was the site of the residence of the rich citizen Philip
the clerk in the early 13th century and thereafter of
property belonging to the Bruyn family and later to the
Troutbecks, serjeants of the Bridgegate. An alternative
name, Rabys Lane, derived from the family who held
the serjeanty of Bridgegate in the 14th century. (fn. 61) Just
outside the walls at the west end of the causeway, on
the west side of the Dee Bridge, were the Dee Mills,
near which lay houses, barns, and other property
belonging to the city's fishermen. (fn. 62) Along the riverside
itself, Skinners Lane contained industrial buildings
known in the late 14th century as the Mustard
Houses, by the mid 16th as the Glovers Houses, and
c. 1700 as the Skinners Houses. (fn. 63)

Watergate Street, on its way to the medieval Watergate, crossed the line of the former western wall of
the legionary fortress at the point marked from the
late 12th century by Holy Trinity church. (fn. 64) Like the
other principal thoroughfares it contained shops and
town houses belonging to important citizens. (fn. 65) At its
eastern end were the fishboards and the shambles. (fn. 66)
Because Commonhall Lane, south of and parallel to
Watergate Street, was densely built up, the only
thoroughfares to join Watergate Street from the
south lay well towards its western end: Alban Lane
along a line just inside the former west wall of the
Roman fortress, (fn. 67) and St. Nicholas Lane just outside.
The later was named from the Dominican friary's
chapel of St. Nicholas (fn. 68) and extended to the junction
with White Friars Lane where the church of St.
Martin marked the south-western corner of the
Roman fortress. (fn. 69) Its line was continued to the south
by Nuns Lane, the site of the Benedictine nunnery
from the mid 12th century. (fn. 70)

Four lanes led off the north side of Watergate Street.
The most easterly, Goss Lane on the western side of the
Roman principia, existed by the early 13th century. Its
northern termination is uncertain but it seems likely
that it joined the east-west arm of Crook Lane (probably
on the line of Hamilton Place). (fn. 71) At the intersection
with Watergate Street was the large property known in
the 13th century as the 'Erbereyert' (the 'shelter yard'),
leased from Stanlow abbey by the Saracen family with
other land in the lane. (fn. 72) Further west lay the other,
north-south arm of Crook Lane, also called Gerrards
Lane (later Crook Street), which by the early 13th
century ran northwards to Parsons Lane (later Princess
Street). (fn. 73) Beyond that, immediately east of Holy Trinity
church and on the line of the inner side of the west wall
of the legionary fortress, was Trinity Lane. (fn. 74) Another
lane followed the other side of the wall, running
northwards to St. Werburgh's grange in the northwestern corner of the city and eventually meeting the
western end of Barn Lane (later King Street). (fn. 75) In being
by the earlier 13th century, it was known by the mid
14th as Crofts Lane (later Linenhall Street). (fn. 76)

Northgate Street extended from the Cross to the
Northgate. Its southern end, where it passed over the
east side of the principia, was very narrow, lined on the
west side by shops and eventually also the back Pentice,
which abutted the east end of St. Peter's church, and on
the east by the frontage of an important mansion. (fn. 77)
Further north it opened out into a broad space in front
of the abbey gateway, the site of St. Werburgh's fair. (fn. 78)
The northern two thirds of the eastern side of the street
was followed by the precinct wall of St. Werburgh's,
against which by the late 13th century abutted small
shops and houses owned by the abbey. (fn. 79) No other
features, except the two abbey gateways, the gate into
the abbey's graveyard, and, from the mid 14th century,
the chapel of St. Nicholas, enlivened that part of the
street. No thoroughfare is known to have run eastwards, although it seems likely that there was a lane on
the southern side of the graveyard wall, along and
continuing the line of Music Hall Passage.

Almost certainly the western side of Northgate Street
was lined with buildings for much of its length. (fn. 80) Three
lanes led off westwards. The southernmost, immediately north of the remains of the Roman principia, was
an arm of Crook Lane, in existence by the 13th century.
It joined Gerrards Lane, to which the name Crook Lane
was also applied. (fn. 81) To the north two streets extended
west beyond the former legionary fortress to Crofts
Lane. Parsons Lane, described in the early 13th century
as 'the lane opposite the abbey gate', (fn. 82) crossed over
Roman foundations and owed its name to the fact that
in the 13th century the vicar of St. Oswald's had a
house there. In the 14th century it also contained
shops. (fn. 83) Further north Barn Lane, which also wandered
over Roman foundations, by the 13th century gave
access to the abbey's grange and in 1366 contained
another barn with an orchard, belonging to the Erneys
family. (fn. 84) By the 16th century Ox Lane ran north from
Barn Lane to join another lane running alongside the
city wall; neither contained any houses, passing only
through crofts, orchards, and gardens. (fn. 85)

Much of the area on either side of Northgate Street
north of the abbey gatehouse was still relatively open in
the mid 14th century. To the east lay the abbey precinct
and graveyard, and to the west the sparse network of
minor lanes just described. Although none of those
lanes was recorded before the 13th century it seems
likely that the topography of the area had changed little
from the Norman or even the late Anglo-Saxon period
and was still dominated by barns, orchards, and ox
stalls.

The whole area between the western wall of the
legionary fortress and the medieval west wall was also
largely undeveloped. After the mid 12th century much
of it was gradually occupied by religious communities.
The first to be established, the Benedictine nunnery, lay
in the south-west corner of the medieval city, near the
castle. (fn. 86) Immediately to the north was the Dominican
friary, established in the 1230s in a precinct bounded
by St. Nicholas Lane to the east, Watergate Street to the
north, and, by the mid 14th century, Arderne (later
Walls or Black Friars) Lane to the south. (fn. 87) On the north
side of Watergate Street lay the Franciscan friary, also
founded in the 1230s, with a precinct bounded to the
east by Crofts Lane and to the north by Little Parsons
or Dog Lane (on or near the line of Bedward Row). (fn. 88)

The north-western corner of the intramural area,
known as the Crofts and bounded by Crofts Lane to the
east and Little Parsons Lane to the south, continued to
be occupied mostly by gardens throughout the Middle
Ages. (fn. 89) The principal buildings included St. Werburgh's
barn, in being by the 13th century and probably
situated near the junction of Barn Lane and Crofts
Lane, and St. Chad's chapel, which from the mid 13th
century lay on the north side of Little Parsons Lane at
the intersection with Crofts Lane. (fn. 90) By the early 14th
century a lane crossed the Crofts winding northwards
from the east end of St. Chad's to a postern in the
north wall of the city by Bonewaldesthorne Tower. (fn. 91) In
the early 15th century the area was the site of some
poor quality housing and shops. (fn. 92)

Clearly much of the intramural area remained
relatively undeveloped. The collapsed remains of the
two greatest Roman buildings, the principia and the
bathhouse, continued to inhibit street development
near by, and there was room for the large precincts
of the friars and for areas in the north-west and southeast corners of the city which contained little but crofts,
orchards, and gardens throughout the later Middle
Ages. Urban activity was intense only in the southern
part of Northgate Street, Eastgate Street, Watergate
Street, Bridge Street with the adjacent parts of the
lanes on its western side, and perhaps Lower Bridge
Street.

Extramural and Suburban Development

There was early and dense extramural settlement outside the Eastgate along Foregate Street, the principal
landward approach to the city. (fn. 93) There, beyond the
town ditch, lay properties, occasionally termed burgages, which by the late 13th century housed inns, large
shops, goldsmiths' premises, and smithies. (fn. 94) The group
of 15 shops with gardens held by the bishop, and later
leased to the Egerton family, affords some indication of
the intensive nature of development, (fn. 95) which by the
early 14th century led to encroachment on the street
near the Eastgate in the form of what were later termed
'piazzas', colonnaded walkways produced by buildings
oversailing the pavement, their first storeys brought
forward on posts. (fn. 96) Further east, buildings presumably
straggled along the street at least to the Bars and
perhaps as far as the leper hospital by the city boundary
at Boughton. (fn. 97) They included the residences of prominent families, such as the descendants of the 13thcentury mayor Richard the clerk, who had land near
Cow Lane (later Frodsham Street), (fn. 98) and the Payns,
who produced two sheriffs of the city in the late 13th
century and whose holdings were concentrated near
the Bars. (fn. 99)

Outside the Eastgate, streets led off both north and
south. Cow Lane extended northwards, with the Kaleyards - the walled monastic garden of St. Werburgh's -
on its western side, and barns, shops, and gardens to
the east. (fn. 100) It formed the route by which the citizens'
cattle could be driven to and from the common known
as Henwald's Lowe (later the Gorse Stacks) just outside
the north-east corner of the walled city. (fn. 101) On the far
side of the common the road was continued by a way
perhaps called the Greenway (later Brook Street),
which led off in a north-easterly direction to the city
boundary at Flooker's brook, beyond which were the
town field of Newton and the common pasture of
Hoole heath. (fn. 102) From Henwald's Lowe another thoroughfare, Bag Lane (later George Street), ran west
beside the town ditch to intersect with Upper Northgate Street opposite St. John's hospital. In the earlier
13th century it contained houses belonging to the
abbot of Chester, demolished during the siege of
1264; later there was a quarry alongside. (fn. 103)

Elsewhere in the large north-eastern segment of the
liberties bounded by Upper Northgate Street, Foregate
Street, and Flooker's brook, there were only fields and
gardens. East of Cow Lane and behind the tenements
fronting Foregate Street were Dene field (the field of the
dean and chapter of St. John's) (fn. 104) and North field, in
which, near the city, lay the Justing Croft, presumably
the site of civic tournaments in the later Middle Ages. (fn. 105)
Further east, the land between the line of the later
Queen Street and Hoole Lane was occupied by Herkin's Well field. (fn. 106) The area between Brook Street and
Upper Northgate Street, north-east of the city, was also
wholly agricultural. The greater part comprised the
Town field (also called Chester field), (fn. 107) the western
boundary of which was formed by Windmill or
Besom Lane (later Victoria Road), in the 13th century
a path which gave access to the abbot of Chester's
windmill and extended to Wallfurlong, land belonging
to the abbot next to Flooker's brook. (fn. 108) Between Windmill Lane and Upper Northgate Street lay crofts or
gardens. (fn. 109)

Southwards from Foregate Street St. John's Lane led
off beside the town ditch. Also called Ironmonger Lane,
it gave access to Wolfeldgate and by its continuation,
known from the 13th century as Souters Lode, to a
landing place beside the river. An important thoroughfare, by the 16th century dignified with the appellation
'street', it intersected with Little St. John Lane which
continued south-eastwards to St. John's church.
Together the two streets, the site of the city tanneries,
probably comprised 'Bishop's Street', in which the
bishop of Coventry and Lichfield claimed a liberty in
1499. (fn. 110) They were evidently therefore within the
'bishop's borough', which certainly extended to Foregate Street. (fn. 111)

Little St. John Lane continued eastwards along the
graveyard wall of St. John's as Vicars Lane, on the
north side of which were the houses of the college's
vicars and petty canons. (fn. 112) To the south, forming the
core of the bishop's borough, the precinct of St. John's
contained, in addition to the collegiate church itself,
houses for the bishop and archdeacon, the chapel of St.
James, and, from the late 14th century, the oratory and
offices of the confraternity of St. Anne and a small
oratory probably associated with a hermitage. (fn. 113) Further
east, the area between Foregate Street and the river
remained fields, reached from the north in the late 14th
century by Love Lane, whose 15th-century residents
appropriately included a brothel keeper, (fn. 114) and crossed
by Barkers Lane (later Union Street), a continuation of
Vicars Lane whose early name again records the
presence of tanners in the area. (fn. 115) At the Bars, Payns
Lode (later Dee Lane), named after the shrieval family,
extended south to the river, (fn. 116) and beyond it lay more
fields, occupying most if not all of the narrow area
above the Dee reaching eastwards to the city limits.

The other main area of early suburban development
was south of the river at Handbridge. The core of the
settlement lay along the high street of Handbridge and
its southern continuation, Claverton Way (later Eaton
Road), which ran through Netherleigh to cross the
creek marking the city boundary at Heronbridge. (fn. 117)
From the high street Newbold or Bottoms Lane led
off eastwards towards the Earl's Eye, passing through
Newbold town field and the hamlet of Newbold, where
tofts and crofts were held by millers and fishermen in
the early 13th century. (fn. 118) On the west side of the high
street there was a minor way leading towards Kettle's
Croft (later Edgar's Field) known as Green Lane (later
Greenway Street), and further south the way to Overleigh. (fn. 119) At Overleigh by the mid 13th century Bromfield Way (later Wrexham Road) ran almost directly
south, and Kinnerton (later Lache) Lane south-west to
Lache Hall at the boundary of the liberty. (fn. 120) To the west
the Hollow Way ran through Hough Green, a common
marked by a cross, and continued to Saltney. There the
boundary was marked from the late 15th century by a
bridge with stone foundations and a timber superstructure known as the Blackpool or Stoop Bridge. (fn. 121)
Beyond lay marshes where the citizens had common
pasture in the earlier 13th century. (fn. 122) North of Hough
Green and within the liberties, in a peninsula of land
between the marshes and the Dee, was Brewer's Hall,
an estate held by the serjeants of the Eastgate from
1286. (fn. 123)

Beside the river east of Dee Bridge, the area at the
eastern end of the causeway was occupied in the mid
14th century by the fulling mills, their tenter frames,
and, in the early 15th century, a quarry. (fn. 124) A hermitage
stood between the river and the quarry. (fn. 125) Beyond Newbold lay the great expanse of meadow known in the
12th century as King's Hay and by 1285 as the Earl's
Eye. (fn. 126) The area west of the bridge was also relatively
undeveloped.

South of Handbridge was the town field of Handbridge or Claverton 'in Chester', reaching as far as the
Grey or Great ditch which defined the southern edge of
the liberties. (fn. 127) Beyond the ditch, in the township of
Claverton itself, there were further open fields, where
the religious communities and leading citizens of
Chester also owned land. (fn. 128)

Outside the Northgate lay the smallest of the city's
suburbs. Apart from the hospital of St. John, whose
precinct occupied a narrow strip of land extending
westwards from the gate outside the town ditch, most
of the area belonged to the monks of St. Werburgh's. In
the 1280s and 1290s the abbot was indicted in the
county court for raising a court there for his tenants
and for obstructing the highway with a bakehouse. (fn. 129)
The suburb's main axis lay along Upper Northgate
Street, the road north into Wirral, which from early
times forked to form Bache Way (later Liverpool Road)
running north, and Mollington Lane (later Parkgate
Road) running north-west. (fn. 130) In the 13th century a lane
also led off west from Upper Northgate Street beside St.
John's hospital. It soon divided, one branch continuing
alongside the town ditch to the Dee on the line of the
later Canal Street (fn. 131) and the other leading off northwestwards along the later Garden Lane to the anchorage of Portpool, which lay at the city boundary,
Finchett's Gutter. The growing significance of Portpool
Way perhaps reflected the shift in seaborne traffic from
the ancient harbour near the Dee Bridge to the
anchorages downstream from the Watergate, but even
so the lane's status remained uncertain as late as the
1290s, when the abbot, claiming it was his 'proper soil',
levied tolls on those using it, and even ploughed it up. (fn. 132)

The Northgate suburb also contained a stone cross (fn. 133)
and buildings belonging to the abbey, of which the
most important were St. Thomas's chapel with its
graveyard, at the fork terminating Upper Northgate
Street, and the abbey's tithe barn on Mollington Lane. (fn. 134)
The land on either side of Upper Northgate Street,
from Portpool to Windmill Lane, formed gardens,
mostly the property of Chester abbey and including
the Battle Croft, whose name implies that it was the site
of judicial battle in the Middle Ages. (fn. 135) Beyond lay open
fields extending to the northern limits. (fn. 136) Outside the
liberty was Bache, which contained the abbot's mill (fn. 137)
and further fields in which the abbey and a number of
important local citizens had holdings. (fn. 138) A little to the
west Mollington Lane was carried over Bache brook
into the township of Blacon by a stone bridge. (fn. 139)

The west side of the city was occupied at its northern
end by the harbour, protected from 1322 by the New or
Water Tower; further south was the Roodee, a meadow
marked since the 13th century by a stone cross and used
for both recreation and grazing. (fn. 140) At its southern end,
near the Benedictine nunnery but outside the city walls,
lay a quarry and crofts, across which the nuns had a right
of way to the Roodee and the river. (fn. 141)

Much of the land within the city liberties remained
agricultural throughout the Middle Ages. In areas such
as those to the north and east of Bag Lane and Cow
Lane the fields reached almost to the city walls. Within
the walls, although the principal streets were highly
developed, Chester retained a distinctly agricultural
flavour. Even c. 1350, at the end of a century which
had seen intensive economic activity, rustic buildings
such as barns and byres were scattered through its
streets. With the advent of economic depression in the
15th century the settled area probably shrank and
many plots in the heart of the city were apparently
unoccupied. (fn. 142)

Building Activity, 1230-1400

The local building stone was the soft and friable red
sandstone which gave the early name of 'Redcliff' to
the suburb near St. John's church and which was
quarried at a number of sites within the city limits,
near the Northgate, the Roodee, and the fulling
mills. (fn. 143) Although by the 13th century it was being
used for the castle, walls, gates, churches, and some
important domestic and commercial buildings, stone
was sufficiently unusual to attract notice and special
nomenclature. (fn. 144) Most of Chester's secular buildings
were probably of mixed construction. While the
party walls which divided properties along the principal streets were generally of stone, at least at the level
of the undercrofts, the vanished superstructures were
almost certainly timber-framed. (fn. 145) Outside the main
streets timber framing was probably even more prevalent.

In the earlier 13th century timber was widely
available from the earl's forests in Cheshire and
from north Wales. The region's resources were, however, exploited heavily by Edward I for his military
and building campaigns, (fn. 146) and thereafter timber of the
size and quality required for the structural members of
a major building was much scarcer. By the mid 14th
century the grant of mature trees for building purposes became a mark of the Black Prince's special
favour. (fn. 147)

Building activity was most intense in Chester from
the early 13th to the mid 14th century. To that period
belonged the eastern limb and south transept of the
abbey church, the chapel of St. Nicholas, the main
claustral buildings and gatehouse of St. Werburgh's,
the rebuilding of the castle, the gates, the more important towers on the walls, the initial building schemes for
the friaries, and considerable work at St. John's, St.
Peter's, and possibly other parish churches. (fn. 148) The city's
growing prosperity also affected domestic and commercial buildings, especially in the four main streets. From
the mid 13th century there is evidence of the subdivision
of undercrofts and selds and of an increasingly intensive
use of the street frontages, with the appearance of
numerous groups of small shops often crammed on a
single plot at Row level. (fn. 149) Several major town houses
were clearly built between c. 1200 and 1330. (fn. 150)

Building activity on a considerable scale in the city
centre in the earlier 14th century is suggested by
William of Doncaster's grant to Richard of Wheatley
in 1310 of a strip of land adjoining Richard's property
in Northgate Street, almost certainly near St. Peter's
church. (fn. 151) The strip was of curious dimensions. In length
15 royal ells (c. 17 metres) and in breadth 2 ells (c. 2
metres) at the rear but only ¼ ell (0.3 metres) at the
street end, it allowed some minor adjustment of the
boundary between the two properties; in fact, there
long remained a kink in the boundaries of the plots
further north which perhaps represented an irregularity like that which Richard and William were seeking to
eliminate. (fn. 152) Such an insignificant alteration in plot size
implies either that there were as yet no stout party walls
on the site, or that the rebuilding was on a scale
sufficient to justify the effort required in removing
them. The latter is perhaps more plausible. The deed
expressly mentioned that the rear end of the strip lay
towards Wheatley's stone-built solar, and it may well
be that having erected such a substantial structure
Wheatley intended to complete the work with an
elaborate new street frontage. (fn. 153) Certainly the Wheatley
family still had shops in Ironmongers' Row in the
1330s. (fn. 154)

The more important building work of the period,
produced under the patronage of the royal earl or his
principal officials, was of high quality. At St. Werburgh's, for example, the chapter house and perhaps
other claustral buildings, including the refectory, were
built by masons who had worked on St. Chad's chapel
at Lichfield in the 1220s or 1230s. (fn. 155) The choir, the
pioneering design of which was probably by Edward I's
Savoyard masons, was closely related to other work
done for the court in the 1270s. (fn. 156) Similarities in the
profiles and mouldings of columns and arches suggest,
moreover, that the teams which worked on Edward's
Welsh castles, the greatest building project of the time,
were also employed upon the abbey church and other
buildings including the gateway. A further phase,
which focused on the enlargement of the south
transept, also produced the shrine of St. Werburg, an
outstanding member of a group of structures inspired
by Henry III's tribute to Edward the Confessor at
Westminster Abbey. (fn. 157)

The royal presence provided the abbey's workshop
with a powerful aesthetic stimulus and perhaps some
financial assistance in the form of timber from the
earl's forests and the relaxation of certain dues. On the
other hand, the king's need for craftsmen meant that
from time to time the abbey's workforce was requisitioned and taken off into Wales. (fn. 158) Even so, the workshop remained the dominant enterprise of its kind in
Chester and undoubtedly left its mark on other buildings within the city. At St. John's a major reconstruction of the east end in the mid 14th century was related
to contemporary work in the south transept at the
abbey. (fn. 159) At St. Peter's the continuous wave mouldings
in the tower arch were also a product of the team
responsible for the crossing and the eastern bays of the
nave of the abbey church. (fn. 160) Almost certainly, too, the
castle was the scene of large projects under both Henry
III and Edward I. Although virtually nothing now
survives, the exceptional quality of the paintings in
the Agricola Tower is indicative of the ambitious
nature of the work executed there under royal patronage. (fn. 161) There also in the late 13th and early 14th century
the Welsh castles probably provided a paradigm.
Certainly the city's Edwardian Eastgate appears to
have been closely related to them. (fn. 162)

The pattern of activity was rather different at the
friaries, where relatively simple buildings of the 13th
century were aggrandized in the 14th. The Dominicans, for example, greatly enlarged their single-celled
church in the early 14th century and further altered it
by the early 15th. Important work was also going on at
the Carmelite friary in the 1350s and 1360s. (fn. 163) While
such activity is evidence that the Black Death did not
bring building entirely to a halt in Chester, most of the
major projects evidently lapsed around that time.
Work at the castle almost ceased, while at the abbey
there was apparently a hiatus until the patronage of
Richard II brought a fruitful, if brief, new spell of
building which included the completion of the crossing, the construction of the choir stalls, and perhaps
some work on the nave. (fn. 164)

The period before c. 1350 also saw the production of
the city's main stone-built domestic and commercial
buildings. As well as the stone house of Peter the clerk,
there was a stone chamber in White Friars Lane
belonging to the chamberlain Ranulph of Oxford in
the 1240s, a stone hall in Eastgate Street belonging to
the abbot of Chester in the later 13th century, and
Richard of Wheatley's stone solar set back from Northgate Street in the early 14th. (fn. 165) The houses of wealthy
and important figures such as Richard the engineer and
William of Doncaster were presumably also built
largely of stone, as was at least one of the selds in
Bridge Street, where the designation the Stone Seld
remained current until well into the 15th century. The
five surviving stone-vaulted undercrofts dating from
the mid 13th to the early 14th century may represent
the remains of such buildings. (fn. 166) More fragmentary
survivals, including corbels and doorways, were also
mostly earlier than the mid 14th century. (fn. 167)

More plentiful at the time, though now much
scarcer because of their less durable nature, were
timber structures, which survive mostly at undercroft
level in the four main streets. The arcades which
supported the floors above the wider undercrofts,
such as those at nos. 22 and 28-34 Watergate Street,
11 Bridge Street, and 12 Watergate Street (demolished
1985), are especially numerous, but arch-braced beams
performing a similar function are also to be found at,
for example, nos. 38-42 Watergate Street. (fn. 168) Other
survivals include the massive joists which ceiled the
undercrofts and which might, as at the eastern house of
Booth Mansion (nos. 28-34 Watergate Street) and at
nos. 12 Watergate Street and 36 Bridge Street, support
a layer of rubble or sand into which the stone-flagged
floors above were embedded. (fn. 169) At higher levels much
less survives. A 14th-century beam at no. 17 Watergate
Street (Leche House) provides the only evidence of a
timber frontage on the main streets, and a doorway in
the eastern house of Booth Mansion is the only example of internal timberwork. Medieval timber roofs
are also extremely rare, though one particularly elaborate 13th-century example survives at no. 6 Lower
Bridge Street (the Falcon), reused in a later undercroft.
Another timber element within the city's medieval
buildings which has now disappeared is the 'porches'
on the main thoroughfares, probably light structures
added to the street frontages to protect their entrances
from rain.

Of the city's commercial buildings, the most distinctive were the selds: substantial, long, narrow market
halls, raised over undercrofts and in some instances
stone-built. They were concentrated in a single quarter,
between the Cross and the common hall on the west
side of Bridge Street, and were fronted by a Row. (fn. 170)

Dwellings varied greatly in size and status from the
simplest accommodation, no more than one or two
rooms, to merchants' houses with spacious halls.
Although nothing is known of the humbler structures,
the appearance and layout of the bigger domestic
buildings may be reconstructed. Pares or Paris Hall,
for example, the home of Richard the engineer in Lower
Bridge Street, was stone-built and had a high tower. (fn. 171)
The Bultinghouse next to St. Mary on the Hill, in 1390
the town house of the wealthy local landowner Hugh de
Holes, included several 'lower rooms' next to the
kitchen, and a principal chamber, a barn, and stables,
which Hugh reserved when letting the rest to a local
skinner. (fn. 172) In 1369 the Black Hall in Pepper Street was
the subject of a similar agreement, in which the owner
retained the stables and the principal apartments, the
stone and painted chambers. (fn. 173) Other examples included
a house in Bridge Street with a chapel, dovecot, and
garden, (fn. 174) and a major structure near the river, perhaps
the former residence of the Dunfouls, which when it was
taken down in the 1380s comprised chambers, subchambers, a kitchen, gatehouse, and hall. (fn. 175)

The bigger houses occupied plots with wide street
frontages and were on the main thoroughfares, often
on corner sites at junctions with side streets, where
there was more wall space for windows and hence
better lighting. They included nos. 38-42 Watergate
Street, 48-52 Bridge Street, and 6 Lower Bridge Street.
In their fully achieved form they were all largely the
product of building work carried out in the early to
mid 14th century. The house at nos. 38-42 Watergate
Street, for example, was rebuilt almost entirely at that
time. Others retained more of the preceding structures;
in one instance, nos. 48-52 Bridge Street, at least two
earlier houses may have been reconstructed as a single
unit, retaining the stone facade of one of them. (fn. 176)

Such houses combined commercial and domestic
use. On the first floor they incorporated a large hall,
which might be over 12 metres long and 8 wide and
which lay parallel to the street, running across as many
as three undercrofts. Set back behind shops, usually
quite small lock-ups numbering up to five, (fn. 177) and
reached from the Row, (fn. 178) the hall terminated in a screens
passage, beyond which lay the service bay usually with
a spacious solar above it. The service bay generally
overlooked the side lane, which provided both extra
window space and easy access to the rear of the plot
with its scatter of kitchens, outbuildings, and stables.
The lock-up shops may have had modest premises over
the Row, such as the solars above the Buttershops
mentioned in 1361. (fn. 179) The Row walkway formed an
integral part of the structure from the start, encouraging the development of a compact main block
focused on the hall and backing on to a yard. The
dominance of the Row is illustrated by the fact that,
perhaps unexpectedly, there is no evidence for steps
providing access from street to Row walkway opposite
the screens passage. It is clear that in their earliest phase
such houses were entered by an inconvenient route at
either end of the frontage. (fn. 180)

The more standard courtyard plan, seen for example
in town houses in Norwich and King's Lynn, was
incompatible with the extended two-tiered street
fronts characteristic of the main thoroughfares, and
hence was rare in Chester. The only building possibly
of that type within the main streets is nos. 14-16
Northgate Street, which included a courtyard with an
extensive domestic range to the rear. (fn. 181)

The largest houses such as those just described were
never the norm even in the main streets. Much more
common were houses whose halls, constructed over
only one or two undercrofts, lay at right angles to the
street, behind shops fronting the Row walkway. They
generally had timber superstructures of which little
remains, although one unusually lavish stone-built
example survived in 2000 as the eastern house of
nos. 28-34 Watergate Street (Booth Mansion), with a
hall measuring some 8.5 by 6.8 metres and two sizeable
shops in front. As with the grander houses, the service
areas were included in outbuildings lying in yards to
the rear. Though most of the standing evidence has
been destroyed by post-medieval development and by
demolition during slum clearance in the 1930s, excavations at nos. 32-4 Watergate Street have revealed the
stone footings of a variety of such structures. (fn. 182)

Building Activity, 1400-1550

Throughout the earlier 15th century there was little
building in Chester, apparently the result of increasing
impoverishment. The citizens' pleas for a reduced fee
farm, initiated in the 1440s, reached a peak in 1484,
when they claimed that the 'greater part' of their city
was 'wasted, desolate, ruinous, and scantily inhabited'.
While such jeremiads doubtless involved much exaggeration, (fn. 183) the impression remains that in the earlier
15th century the fabric of Chester was in decay. The
only significant enterprise which can be ascribed with
certainty to the period was at St. Mary on the Hill,
where the Troutbeck chapel was added in 1433 and the
south aisle was remodelled almost contemporaneously,
both probably through the action of a single wealthy
family. (fn. 184) There may also have been a major remodelling of the Dominican friary shortly after 1400. (fn. 185)
Otherwise building work was restricted to repairs,
usually to timber-framed private houses and often
making use of beams and posts from demolished
buildings. (fn. 186)

Activity had resumed by 1467 with fresh work at the
Dominican friary, where the church was extensively
but incompletely remodelled in the late 15th and early
16th century. (fn. 187) More significant were the building
campaigns at St. Werburgh's between the 1480s and
the 1520s, which included the addition of a new
chancel to the parochial chapel of St. Oswald, and
substantial work on the nave, choir aisles, and cloisters,
part of an intended replacement of all the conventual
buildings. (fn. 188) Other ecclesiastical projects of the period
included an ambitious north-west tower at St. John's,
begun c. 1518; (fn. 189) the remaking of the steeple and main
body of St. Mary's in the 1490s and early 1500s; the
addition of two northern aisles to St. Peter's in the
1530s; a new chancel for St. Michael's in the 1490s; (fn. 190)
and new cloisters for the nunnery in the 1520s. (fn. 191) Much
of the work was supported by citizens, who, at least
until the Dissolution, were clearly willing to spend
fairly lavishly on their favourite ecclesiastical institutions. (fn. 192) Never of more than provincial significance, the
work was generally of a lower quality than that of the
13th and 14th centuries, and in some instances, such as
the clerestory of the abbey nave, notably austere.

The citizens were equally involved in the renewal of
their public buildings, for which they obtained timber
from their own estates or local religious houses, rather
than the Crown's forests and parks. (fn. 193) A major project
was the reconstruction of the Pentice in the 1460s and
1497. (fn. 194) In 1508 Roger Smith, a former sheriff, left
money to convert his property in Commonhall Lane
into almshouses, a bequest quickly augmented by the
corporation, which converted the nearby common hall
into a chapel for the new establishment. (fn. 195) A new
common hall, probably envisaged from 1511, was
eventually obtained in 1546 with the extensive refitting
of the abandoned chapel of St. Nicholas. (fn. 196)

One or two important timber-framed domestic
buildings were also built during the period, most
notably Leche House (no. 17 Watergate Street),
which probably dates from c. 1500 and provides a
late example of a town house with a large hall over an
undercroft and at right angles to the street. The only
other significant structure surviving from the period is
the timber-framed upper portion of the rear wing of
nos. 48-50 Lower Bridge Street (the Old King's Head),
which stretched west along Castle Lane above the
remains of the Thorntons' stone-built mansion. (fn. 197)